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Previewing fall fiscal battles

On one side, about one-third of the 46-member Republican Conference has signed on to a strategy to oppose any spending bill that contains Obamacare funding — a tally that has sputtered of late and remains stuck at 14.

On the other, a large chunk of Senate Republicans has turned its back on that strategy, arguing it could once again paint the GOP as the “government shutdown party” as the country careens toward a Sept. 30 deadline to keep the government funded.

The Senate’s discord is spilling over to the House, where Republican leaders thought they could satisfy both camps by forcing the Senate to take two separate votes: one on a continuing resolution that would keep the government running into December and another on defunding Obamacare.

But opposition to that plan fueled by Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah caused a rebellion among House conservatives, delaying a vote on the House measure.

“They’re screwing us,” fumed a House GOP aide who had hoped that giving Senate Republicans yet another opportunity to unanimously oppose Obamacare would be enough to satisfy two of the most prominent Senate conservatives.

Instead, Cruz and Lee have resisted the House approach because the Democratic-controlled Senate would surely vote to keep the government funded and easily defeat the Obamacare defunding component. Cruz called the approach “procedural chicanery” and asserted that the House GOP would be “complicit in the disaster that is Obamacare” if it supported the maneuver.

“Not a fan,” Lee told POLITICO. “We need the House to pass a [bill] that funds everything else at current levels and contains a defunding provision.”

That sentiment helped ramp up opposition among the two dozen or so House Republicans that take cues from the two senators, the House GOP aide said.

Outside groups warned Republicans to get away from the two-step approach, which House GOP leadership still hopes will be considered next week. Those opposing the tactic include conservative stalwarts like FreedomWorks, Heritage Action for America, Club for Growth and the Senate Conservatives Fund.

“We don’t want any parliamentary tricks,” said Dean Clancy, FreedomWorks vice president of public policy. “Just have a vote and send a bill to the Senate that defunds Obamacare.”

Senate Democrats said they would go along with the House approach and take another vote on Obamacare in order to get a clean funding resolution. They’ve already voted multiple times on defunding Obamacare, which would mean no new storyline or attack advertisements could be sprung on vulnerable Democratic senators up for reelection who already have voted to keep the health care law, a Senate Democratic aide argued.

But if the House were to follow Lee’s prescription, that calculus would change.

“Nothing that monkeys with Obamacare would pass the Senate,” the aide said.

Some Republican senators said they would most likely go along with House leadership’s measure that would give the Senate separate votes on government funding and Obamacare. It’s not a perfect plan, said Indiana Sen. Dan Coats, but it might work.